You knew that he wasn’t one for big celebrations on his birthday, but you wanted to make this one special for his first birthday together with you. You were used to scouting out all the local haunted spots, and found an abandoned animatronic restaurant nearby that was set to be demolished soon. A perfect opportunity to add a bit more haunting into the ghost hunters’ lives as you brought your electronic demon of a boyfriend along to spend a day having fun and scaring people while you giggled silently from your hiding places.
He was at first begrudgingly coming along, until you pulled into the parking lot, and the hairs on the back of his neck pricked up as he gremlin crouched in the passenger seat.
“T’is place haunted?”
“Supposed to be.”
“If it wasn’t b’fore, it sure will be now!”
He excitedly glitches inside, flashes of green fractured through the broken windows as you let out a giggle. You brought along his birthday present, a hunting knife for him, and a few batteries for snacks in case he got hungry while excitedly exploring the abandoned pizza restaurant. You walk in through the front door, or rather around it through the broken front window. You found it humorous that it was still locked, even if the pizzeria closed down nearly a decade ago.
The room smells of blood, rot, and cheap pizza sauce. Not unusual for a haunted place since people like to do weird rituals for views on the internet, trying to summon demons and the spirits that haunt the grounds. You always knew if there were any actual demons or spirits around, mostly because Anti would sniff them out in the first place, often scaring them out, or at least keeping them away from you. He was like a guard dog in a sense, always taking his reward in the form of snacks and chin scratches after an investigation.
But this wasn’t a job like any other day, this was a day where he got to go have fun, explore around, and you’d just make sure he stayed away from any amatuer demon traps or pull him out of any territory fights. You looked on stage and found the gaze of the animatronics creepy, you felt as though their eyes were watching you, unblinking.
The brown bear stood in the center of the stage, holding a microphone with a small top hat and bowtie. A purple bunny stands off to the right of the bear, holding a worn, broken guitar that may have been red at some point. The third is some kind of bird, but you can’t quite make out if it’s a chicken or duck. Maybe at some point it was wearing an apron or bib, the straps still around its neck, but the clothing is long gone. Their never turning heads give you a sense of security, but you can’t help but feel like you’re being watched all the same.
You follow the stage until you reach a curtain in the corner, a deteriorated “OUT OF ORDER” sign in front. A peek behind the curtain reveals nothing there, but you hear the gentle creak of mechanics behind you, until you start hearing loud footsteps, sprinting at you. You turn around to see a rotted fox animatronic sprinting at you, mouth agape and claws ready to slice. You scream for Anti, diving behind the curtain when a familiar metallic giggle rings through the empty birthday room.
“YOU MOTHERFUCKING GLITCH BITCH- I DON’T CARE IF IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY I WILL FUCKING EXORCISE YOU-”
He stumbles out of the suit, collapsing onto the floor in a hysterical giggle fit, clutching his stomach as his glitching is off the walls. After a few minutes of you standing above him, tapping your foot with your arms crossed in disappointment, his giggles calm and he stands, wiping away a tear from his eye.
“Ye should’ve seen yer face! Ye really t’ought ye were goin’t’ die, huh~?”
“I will murder you~”
He kisses your face with a cheeky grin, before moving to latch onto you, backpack-style. He pokes your cheek with his finger, his other arm around your neck loosely to keep himself from falling off.
“Snack time~?”
“You done trying to scare me?”
“...maybe~”
“Anti…”
“FINE-”
“Thank you~”
He grins as you squeeze his hand lovingly, holding batteries up to his lips as he happily munches. You sigh lovingly, enjoying your koala cuddles in the middle of the gross, cold, dark, definitely haunted pizzeria. You walk around a bit more, looking for any other animatronics, wincing as the fox one collapses to the ground. He giggles, which causes you to join in with his laughing this time.
“You happy with your birthday celebration, diabhal~?”
“Absolutely, acushla~”
He piggybacks on you back to the car, where you give him the new knife out of your backpack. He holds it as he gremlin crouches in the passenger seat again, before glitching back into the pizzeria, testing it out on the animatronics once more. You hear him yelp, and glitch back into the car.
“GO- GO- GO- GO- GO-”
Stepping on the gas, you peel out of the parking lot, seeing glowing eyes through the broken window as the animatronics run up to the front entrance. You see the fox animatronic make a gesture with its hook that you can only assume was an attempted flip off. You glance at Anti, who looks a little spooked himself.
“Kids are spooky…”
“Of course you did…”
You laugh as he blushes bashfully, embarrassed that he was bested by a group of kids.
“Happy birthday, Anti~”
